Peter Dutton suggested the Coalition may go to the next election with no alternative to Labor’s revamped stage-three income tax cuts, arguing it will depend on the pre-election budget.
Speaking to the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia on Thursday, the opposition leader said that it would be too “costly” to propose tax cuts now and argued he’d need the help of Treasury and the finance department to formulate a policy after the election.
When the Albanese government redirected stage-three income tax cuts more to low and middle-income earners, the Coalition criticised the change but then agreed to help the $359bn 10-year package pass parliament.
Dutton said that in government the Coalition had shown an “appetite” to tackle bracket creep and had a “win” in legislating stage-three income tax cuts.
“There’s still a hot debate, particularly post the government’s changes to stage-three tax cuts, about what that means for bracket creep and the way in which that will erode any gain over the course of the next couple of years,” he said.
However, Dutton continued, “it’s a costly space to weigh in to, and it’s difficult from opposition to try to change and develop a new tax system without the support of the central agencies”.
“It’s just a question, I suppose, of where we find ourselves, fiscally, by the time of the next election, the head room you have left to play with.”
Conversely, the shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, has said previously “we’ll take a strong tax reform policy to the next election”.
Dutton also claimed his community would “riot” if a wind farm were proposed in his electorate of Dickson.
The suggestion that local objections should be considered when planning large-scale renewables, comes despite Dutton’s intent to push ahead even if communities around the Coalition’s proposed seven nuclear power sites reject the plan.
Earlier in June, Dutton announced the Coalition’s proposal for seven sites to build nuclear power plants but had few key details including the cost and the total amount of nuclear energy to be generated.
The Coalition is also yet to announce what proportion of electricity it proposes to be generated by gas and large-scale renewables.
On Thursday Dutton acknowledged the “big upfront capital cost” to nuclear but claimed it was necessary because green hydrogen is still unfeasible. The Coalition is proposing small modular reactors for the first two power plants, a technology that is not commercially available anywhere in the world.
Dutton then claimed the Coalition are “huge supporters of renewable energy”. Where it is constructed, however, seemed an entirely different thing.
“In my electorate, I’m 40 minutes from a capital city, my electorate which would be counted as outer-metropolitan or semi-rural … goes crazy if there is the suggestion of a 5G tower.”
“If there was a DA [development application] for 10 wind turbines, 260 metres out of the ground, I would be travelling around – I travel round in an armoured car now, but I would have greater need for it.
“Because I think people would be rioting in my community, to be honest.”
Dutton argued government should not “be blind to or ignore the concerns of the members of that local community”.
After the Coalition unveiled its nuclear plan, the deputy Nationals leader, Perin Davey, suggested if communities are “absolutely adamant” they didn’t want nuclear power plants then the Coalition “will not proceed”.
The Coalition has since clarified this is incorrect and, after two and a half years of consultation, it plans to build nuclear power plants no matter what.
